


it's better if you just don't speak

by ElasticElla



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: F/M, Future Fic, Implied Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-02
Updated: 2017-08-02
Packaged: 2018-12-10 07:36:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11687028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElasticElla/pseuds/ElasticElla
Summary: Jace appears at her elbow with two glasses. “Before you run away, you should know I brought your favorite tequila.”Maia snorts, but takes the glass, isn’t passing up free Don Julio.





	it's better if you just don't speak

**Author's Note:**

> for pablo who prompted 'they broke up months ago but they somehow still find themselves drawn to each other at this fancy party', this uh kinda took a left turn, hope you still like it ^.^  
> title from fifth harmony's not that kinda girl
> 
> i [tumble](http://bizeke.tumblr.com/)

Maia hates fancy parties, especially ones she can’t get out of. People would notice if the Alpha of New York ducked out of the _Valentine is dead and for the love of all that is holy can we pretend to be civil again_ party. Usually at gigs like this she’s serving alcohol, an empty smile and tilted ear and by the end of the night at least her bank account’s healthier. Usually she’d argue with someone about the speaker, some old shadowhunter going off about combining everyone’s better halves for a better future. It’s utter horseshit that ignores far more downworlders died taking down Valentine, that their communities are too fractured to fight the Clave now. (The faeries would get their revenge, they always do. Doubtless Maia would be long dead by then.)

She kind of hates diplomacy. 

Jace appears at her elbow with two glasses. “Before you run away, you should know I brought your favorite tequila.” 

Maia snorts, but takes the glass, isn’t passing up free Don Julio. It isn’t really her favorite, she’d just told Jace once to see if he’d blink at buying her the most overpriced liquor at Hunter’s Moon. It is delicious, a fun indulgence that she’s getting too familiar with. 

“He’s the oldest council member,” Jace says, gesturing to the makeshift podium. “It’s supposed to be a mark of respect having him come all the way to the States.”

Maia raises an eyebrow, “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were trying to bait me into commenting and mess up werewolf-shadowhunter relations.” 

“No,” Jace says quickly. “I just wanted- I don’t know why Alec brought in a bureaucrat.” 

Maia has a few guesses, each more unpleasant than the last. She doesn’t want to think about that now though, not right after a real victory, polishing off her glass. Tomorrow she’ll dive back into politics, meet with Raphael and Magnus and Meliorn. 

Tonight though, she hands the empty tumbler back to Jace. “You got anymore?” 

Jace grins, and Maia supposes it’ll be easier to play definitely not revolution seeking downworlder here in his company. It has nothing to do with the warmth in her gut, or remembered touches from before. (Before couldn’t truly be called dating, falling together whenever the world seemed about to implode. And nothing without a beginning has an ending, has the capacity to hurt.) 

Jace grabs a bottle from behind the bar and leads her to a decorative couch on the far wall. It’s a place where they can be easily seen but distant, and Maia begrudgingly accepts it as a smart move and sits. Many of the shadowhunters that feel obligated to talk to her already have, and the remainder will be unlikely to join them. 

Jace tries to balance both of the short glasses on his palm, tucking the bottle between the couch’s arm and his thigh to stabilize it enough to get the top off. He’s good with his hands but he’s not _that_ good, and she’s gonna have to intervene before paper towels are necessary. Rolling her eyes she reaches across to take the bottle, opening it and using her fingers to keep the glasses steady on his palm as she pours. 

“There’s no need to spill a hundred dollar bottle of tequila all over this couch.” 

Jace shrugs, “I never liked this couch.” 

“Spoiled,” Maia says, closing the bottle and setting it on the floor. She takes one of the glasses and tucks her feet under her. Maia goes with the only safe toast she can think of that isn’t blatantly false, “To unity.”

“A new beginning,” Jace says, clinking. 

He’s wearing that damn smile again, the presumptuous one. Maia doesn’t know if she wants to smack it off his face or push him down on his knees or both, and fuck that’s exactly why he has it. 

“I never congratulated you on becoming Alpha,” Jace says. 

“Yeah well Luke didn’t leave me much choice with the mundane fiasco,” Maia snaps. 

His eyebrows come together, “I mean it. You’re a good leader.” 

“And what do you know about that?” 

Jace licks his lips, leans in to whisper, “I know if you weren’t any good at it, Alec wouldn’t be stressing over how to keep the downworld in check.”

Maia smiles at that. It isn’t a new piece of information, but that Jace was willing to tell her- it’s something. His breath is warm on her neck, and Maia tilts her head just the slightest bit to meet his eyes, “Well thank you.” 

His pupils dilate, and the wolf inside her aches to take, to possess, to mark him as hers before all others. 

“Your place,” Jace murmurs. 

“Inviting yourself over now cocky?” Maia says, and reality comes rushing back in, each leaning back to their own side of the couch. 

The heat in his eyes doesn’t quit though, “Raphael and Magnus have already left. You don’t have to stay longer.” 

“And you wanna come with me?” Maia asks, standing up. 

There’s a whine in his throat he can’t conceal from her supernatural hearing, and Maia grins. 

“I wanna fully give my praise for your new position,” he says, the words practically dripping with sin, but there’s a faint blush burning in his cheeks. 

Maia can’t look at him anymore, can't listen, can’t be here anymore without doing something monumentally stupid. “Fine, c’mon.” 

Jace follows her with a wide grin and Maia tells herself this will be the last time. She’s already seen how the downworlder-shadowhunter relationship goes, and now she has her pack to always put first. But one last roll in the hay with Wayland won’t break anything, and she’d never tell him- but god, she’s missed that mouth. 

(They make it outside the institute, three streets down before Maia pulls him into a dark alley. It’s only because of how much she needs to get off, it has nothing to do with the image of him on her sheets, of how hard it could be to kick him out in the morning. This is only happening because she’s missed his talent, it doesn’t mean anything.)


End file.
